On paper, it’s fairly easy to write off Athlete as the latest in a monotonous line of over-hyped British rock bands. However, its debut album is noticeably different from contemporaries like Coldplay, Doves, Elbow and Starsailor, because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Vehicles & Animals is packed with soaring guitars and pretty harmonies, and they’re all delivered in a relaxed, quirky fashion, like the lazy, sun-soaked stroll of “El Salvador,” the album’s opening track. A thumping, well-crafted breakbeat appears out of thin air to close out “One Million,” and it’s the first of several successful electronic experimentations. “You Got The Style” is the album’s most addictive track, and it spotlights the band’s penchant for unadulterated corniness. The chorus is so ridiculously catchy, it doesn’t matter that lead singer Joel Pott is belting out the lines “Oh, it’s getting hot in here/Must be somethin’ in the atmosphere.” Where Oasis rips off Lennon/McCartney, Athlete rips off Nelly.
Vehicles & Animals is by no means a masterpiece, but it deserves credit as an interesting record that’s fun to listen to. Think of it this way: The Beatles had three members with angelic voices. They wrote album after album of brilliant, introspective compositions. And what Beatles songs are the sweetest? The tunes sung by Ringo, the band’s silliest, clumsiest member. If Radiohead is “A Day In The Life,” then Athlete is “Octopus’s Garden”: a strange, meaningless and wholly enjoyable experience.
Appeared in the June 17, 2004, issue of Artvoice.